Dive Summary:
- Administrators at South Georgia Technical College will begin loaning textbooks to students for free as a result of reductions in the HOPE grant--which 80 to 85 percent of the college's students were eligible for--that led to the discontinuation of its $150 book voucher.
- The textbook program will cost about $400,000 initially, and the college's president, Sparky Reeves, said he hopes the cost will be offset by tuition revenue from additional students and that the college is using other generated funds and a few small grants to pay for the program.
- Registration was up 9.3% over last year on the school's first day of pre-registration for fall last Tuesday.
From the article:
When Georgia's need-based HOPE grant for technical college students stopped helping them pay for textbooks last year, administrators at South Georgia Technical College decided to take matters into their own hands. The college announced three weeks ago that starting this fall, it will provide students with free textbooks for each of their courses -- a program that President Sparky Reeves said he hopes will be paid for by tuition revenue brought in by additional students. ...